New user - Word could not communicate with Zotero

sgietsch

Help, please! I am a new Zotero user, having uploaded a large humanities bibliography from RefWorks. I am working in Microsoft Word, and I have a Zotero tab on my toobar. When I click on "Zotero," I get an option to "Add/Edit Citation," but when I do this, I get this message: "Word could not communicate with Zotero. Please ensure Zotero is running and try again." Well, if by "running," we mean "open," it is open. What do I need to do to create endnotes from my bibliography? Thanks so much. - The Novice

dstillman

What OS? Can you provide a Report ID?

If you go to the Cite → Word Processors pane of the Zotero preferences, do you see buttons to reinstall the Word and LibreOffice plugins?

sgietsch

I am sorry to be such a dunderhead. I am running Windows 7. I can't provide a Report ID because I can't find the Help menu. I also can't go to Cite ->Word Processors because I can't find the Zotero preferences. When I open the program and log on, the only tabs I see are "Web Library, Groups, Documentation, Forums, Get Involved" and my name for logging in/out.

dstillman

That's not Zotero — that's the web library on this site. Zotero is a program that you download and run on your computer.

https://www.zotero.org/download/

sgietsch

Thanks for your patience. I found the Preferences menu and installed the Word plug-in. I also created a Report ID: 928003442

dstillman

But are you still having the same problem? If you weren't actually running Zotero before, which it doesn't sound like you were, you obviously would've gotten that error.

sgietsch

Thanks for your persistence. I believe that I have connected Word with my Zotero database. So, I get to the point in Word where I want to add an Endnote. I click on References, Insert Endnote. That gives me a superscript within the document. Then I click on Zotero and then Add/Edit Citation. I type in the author's name, I get something like this: "Gerlach, 1980." I click on the blue bubble, add a page number, but I cannot get the full reference to appear in the Endnotes. Again, I apologize for being so dense.

dstillman

No, Zotero will add endnotes for you — you just need to choose an appropriate style and choose to use endnotes from the Document Preferences window that shows up when you first start using the plugin in a document (or after, if you click the Document Preferences button).

sgietsch

OK. I think I have it now. Thank you so much. I have a 2,000 item bibliography that I started in RefWorks, but our university is discontinuing support for that program, so I needed an alternative. Zotero is it, but I need to learn how to operate it right. Thank you.